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ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- The Samford University basketball team's 2015-16 season came to a well-fought end Saturday as the Bulldogs put up a valiant effort against the top-seeded Chattanooga Mocs and nearly knocked off the regular-season champion and Southern Conference Tournament favorite, 59-54, in the quarterfinal round of the 10-team postseason competition.
 
"I was just so proud of our guys and their fight today," said Samford head coach Scott Padgett. "I was not surprised at all about how we battled out there, because it's been that way all year. Every time adversity has hit us, it made us fight that much harder. We didn't play perfect, and we didn't make all the plays down the stretch, but this team fought all the way to the end."
 
Samford (14-19) led by five points at the half, 36-31, after shooting 40.7 percent from the field and 87.5 percent (14-of-16) from the free-throw line in the opening period. The Bulldogs, despite being without injured starting center Wyatt Walker, forced the Mocs' Justin Tuoyo into some early foul trouble and held him to seven points and one rebound in the game.
 
Samford's Dakota Quinn, a true freshman from Nashville, Tennessee, came on for the Bulldogs in the first half and led all scorers with 10 at the intermission. Quinn finished the contest with 10 points, five rebounds and a blocked shot, while shooting 4-of-6 from the field and 2-of-3 from the charity stripe.
 
Chattanooga (27-5) used a 10-0 run midway through the second half to erase a seven-point Samford lead and garner just its second lead of the contest at 41-38 with 10:24 remaining in the game.
 
The Mocs' defense proved to be a key factor in their comeback as they held Samford to just 18 points on 6-of-24 from the field in the second half. The Bulldogs finished 0-of-14 from 3-point range and failed to convert from beyond the arc for the first time in over 25 years, dating all the way back to Jan. 19, 1991, against UTSA.
 
Chattanooga also came up big on the glass in the final 20 minutes, outrebounding the Bulldogs 22-12. Samford led the board battle in the first half, 20-12, including nine rebounds on the offensive end.
 
Samford's Christen Cunningham led all scorers with 18 points. On Friday against VMI, the Bulldogs' sophomore also became the first player in school history to record back-to-back 125 assist seasons with three assists. In Saturday's quarterfinal matchup, Cunningham tallied two assists, two rebounds and a pair of steals.
 
Quinn came off the bench and netted his career-high 10 points Saturday, all in the first half.
 
Chattanooga junior Tre' McLean scored a team-high 16 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the floor. Senior Duke Ethridge offered valuable minutes off the bench, netting 13 points and grabbing 11 boards for his first career double-double. Classmate Dee Oldham also added 12 points in the win.
 
Samford's Darius Jones-Gibson's bucket at 15:08 ended a near five-minute scoring drought by both teams to open the second half and gave Samford a 38-31 advantage.
 
Chattanooga finally tallied its first basket of the half at the 13:12 mark to trim the lead to 38-34.
 
After an empty Bulldog possession, a McLean miscue at the top of the key sent Samford's Marcus Johnson running for what looked like a sure fast-break bucket. UTC's Johnathan Burroughs-Cook raced down the floor to block the lay-in from behind and Oldham sent the loose ball back up the floor to McLean who drained a triple from the left corner to put Chattanooga within one, 38-37, at the 12:19 mark.
 
The play sparked the Mocs and a minute later McLean converted a bucket off his own steal and gave Chattanooga its first lead since the opening possession, 39-38. Chattanooga then scored seven of the next 10 to boost its advantage to 46-42 with 8:07 remaining.
 
Despite struggling to find a rhythm from the field in the second half, Samford's free-throw shooting kept the game tight. Cunningham managed to get to the bucket down the stretch, scoring eight of the next 10 Bulldog points to tie the game at 52 with two minutes to play.
 
Oldham nailed a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession to give Chattanooga the lead for good. Despite a flurry of turnovers in the final minutes, the Mocs were able to hang on for the slight 59-54 victory.
 
"This was a tough one," Padgett said. "At the end, we were right where we needed to be, but we just couldn't come up with that one big play in the second half. I thought we made some good shots in the first half to get our lead. In the second half, it was a defensive battle. We went to the first media timeout and nobody had scored. Chattanooga also has a heart of a champion and they did what they needed to do to get the win."
 
Chattanooga shot 41 percent from the field compared to 33 percent by Samford. The Bulldogs finished an impressive 20-for-23 from the free-throw stripe, including 14-of-16 in the first half. Chattanooga managed only a 12-of-18 performance from the line. Foul trouble limited minutes for several Moc starters as Chattanooga got 30 points from its bench.
 
With the win, the Mocs advanced to Sunday's semifinal where they will face the fifth-seeded Western Carolina Catamounts at 4 p.m. (CST).
 
Samford concluded its 2015-16 season with a 14-19 record. The Bulldogs finished eighth in the conference with a 4-14 mark and defeated VMI in the opening round of the SoCon Tournament to advance to the quarterfinals.
 
Next season, Samford will be without the efforts of seniors Jones-Gibson, Marcus Johnson, Iman Johnson and Jamal Shabazz, but will return three starters in Matt Rose, Cunningham and Walker. The Bulldogs will also boast the returning talent of Alex Peters, Eric Adams, Quinn and Tanner Tapp.
 
"I really appreciate all four of my seniors, but especially Jamal Shabazz, Darius Jones-Gibson, and Marcus Johnson," said Padgett. "There were a lot of people who bailed on this program a few years ago. That's basically how I ended up with this job. Those guys were not locked in to having to be there when I got the job. For those guys to stay when they only have two years left and to make that commitment to us, I know the program is going the right way. We're going to be in the top of the SoCon soon. They're the building blocks of that. What I'm very upset about is that they didn't get to see the fruition."
 
Additionally, joining the team next season will be redshirt juniors Alex Thompson (transfer from Auburn) and Demetrius Dyson (transfer from UMass), as well as talented incoming true freshmen James Boone, Triston Chambers, Justin Hopkins and Josh Sharkey. Samford will also welcome back the play of talented redshirt freshman Gerald Smith.

"I didn't want it to end this way, but I made the right choice in coming here," said Jones-Gibson. "I trusted in Coach P and I love the guys I came in with. We just knew coming into this game that it would be a battle. It came down to keeping them off the glass. Towards the end of the second half, that's where they started hurting us. They were getting rebounds and kicking it out for open shots."
 
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